Idaho Senate to consider bill that would criminalize trans people using preferred bathrooms

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — The Idaho Senate is one of the last stops for a bill that would criminalize “willfully” entering public and government bathrooms and changing rooms designated for another sex.

The bill would effectively block transgender people from using their preferred public bathrooms in Idaho, expanding on the state’s transgender bathroom ban in public schools.

House Bill 752 would create criminal misdemeanor and felony charges for people who “knowingly and willfully” enter a bathroom or changing room designated for the opposite sex, with some exceptions. The bill would apply in government-owned buildings and places of public accommodations, like private businesses. 

A first offense would carry a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison. A second offense within five years would be a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

Bill sponsor Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, told senators in a Monday committee hearing that the bill protects “common-sense realities.”

“The Legislature has a fundamental duty to protect the bodily privacy and safety of Idaho citizens,” Toews said. “House Bill 752 provides a clear, proactive tool to secure sex-separated private spaces in our state, while accommodating common-sense realities.”

Nikson Mathews, a trans man with a beard, told senators this bill “is about criminalizing trans people.”

”What this bill does is create confusion. It forces someone who looks like me into the women’s restroom,” Mathews said. 

The Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee on Monday advanced the bill to the full Senate on a party-line vote. The committee’s two Democrats, Sens. Melissa Wintrow and James Ruchti opposed it. 

The House widely passed the bill on a 54-15 vote last week. If the bill passes the full Senate, it would next go to Gov. Brad Little for final consideration. 

In a statement, ACLU of Idaho spokesperson Taylor Munson said the bill is about threatening trans people.

“Lawmakers ignored overwhelming evidence that trans folks do not harm people in bathrooms, and instead resorted to demonizing the trans community without offering any robust evidence to justify their stance,” Munson said. 

Committee rushed through bill, cutting off public testimony early

The committee sped through the bill, in what appears to be the near end of the 2026 legislative session. Just five people testified after committee Chairman Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, cut off testimony. Two were in support of the bill, and three were against.

The bill outlines several exceptions, including to give medical assistance, law enforcement assistance, and if someone “is in dire need of urinating or defecating and such facility is the only facility reasonably available at the time of the person’s use.”

Earlier in the committee hearing, Wintrow, of Boise, pressed the bill sponsor on how law enforcement would be able to know if someone truly had a “dire need” to use the bathroom that prompted them to use a restroom designated for another sex. She said the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police had flagged that exception as concerning. 

“I have the utmost faith in our law enforcement to do an investigation and figure out whether or not there was really an emergency,” Toews replied. 

In a letter to a House committee, the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police wrote that the bill “presents significant practical enforcement challenges for law enforcement officers in the field,” the Idaho Capital Sun reported. 

Ruchti, from Pocatello, said the bill “is really about trans people.”

Sen. Brandon Shippy, R-New Plymouth, said the bill doesn’t target trans people. But he doubted the existence of gender identity as a concept. 

“There is no oppressed community that we’re dealing with here. Because there is only male and female,” Shippy said. 

After the committee adjourned, audience members immediately sang in a choir.

“Hold on, hold on. My dear one, here comes the dawn,” they sang.

Then they gathered outside the room, hugging each other as some cried. 

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